Court Possession Order Hearing

[LyndseyAD]

Hi

I am in desperate need for help. We are in arrears with our mortgage of £12000 due to mental health and post natal depression issues, all of which were declared to our mortgage company Halifax.

 

 

We now have a date for a court hearing to determine possession. The solicitors involved have been very helpful in even supporting us with a complaint to Halifax as we do not feel they have followed CML guidelines on arrears.

We have set regular repayment plans which have failed because they have not agreed our request to change the payment date of the plan to coincide with my pay date of wages.

They have also refused us every opportunity to look at ways to manage the arrears - payment holidays, extended terms etc.

I have a few questions to ask....

-does a court order go on file as a CCJ

-will proceedings stop if we make a proposal for paying back arrears

-will proceedings stop if our employers support us in paying back the arrears in full

-if the above, will our name be cleared on our credit report allowing us to apply to remortgage with another company?

-can we claim compensation from Halifax for the stress this has caused us as a family? I am now back on anti-depressants and therapy after my mental health was beginning to improve. I now feel I am back to square one!!

 

 

Any help/advice is really appreciated as we're going out of our mind with worry.

 

 

Thanks

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG. I'm sorry to hear you're having problems.

 

The forum guys should be along later, but I'll keep an eye on your thread and call in help if you don't get any. They'll know what to do.

 

My best, HB

[Lea_HTH]

The solicitors instructed by the Halifax are supporting a complaint against the Halifax?

 

They are not obliged to change the payment date, only consider it. If they choose not to, there is nothing you can do about it. But that said, you're already massively in arrears, if you made an arrangement and stuck to it, the fact you are paying on an alternative date wouldn't be such an issue, because you could agree the first payment under the agreement would be on a specified date...e.g. if your payment is due on 1st of the month, you could arrange your first payment for 20th of the month and say it is for the following month...that way, you are always paying 'ahead' of the 1st of the month. People often blame the payment date for the reason they are behind...but if the payment date was the problem, they could just be one payment behind and then make a plan to pay those arrears off, whilst paying the remaining payments on time. The payment date here isn't your issue - it was your health, and you should point out that you are suffering again because you have not been able to resolve this (put it in writing to Halifax, you can then present a copy to court in the future if necessary).

 

If they ask for and get a money judgment, it goes on your credit file. It'll be notified as defaults anyway, so your credit will already be shot.

 

With 12k of arrears it is very unlikely proceedings will be stopped even if they agree a repayment plan. The likelihood is they will agree a payment plan on condition that they will continue to court and obtain a suspended possession order.

 

If the arrears are paid in full with your employer's support then the proceedings may not 'stop', but they may be adjourned with liberty to restore should you fall behind again in the next twelve months.

 

You are likely to find it extremely difficult to remortgage at this stage, or at any stage until any defaults drop off your credit file. It is likely any remortgage will look to see how your current mortgage is run by checking your credit files and therefore your arrears position will be seen, even if the arrears have been cleared. It may take you a while to rebuild your credit profile.

 

No, you can't claim compensation. They haven't done anything wrong in asking you to pay your missed payments and in proceeding to court when you haven't paid. If they have not adequately followed the pre-action protocol then you can ask the court not to allow them to add the costs of the proceedings to your mortgage account or the security. (Use the correct wording.) Other than that prospect (and it is just a prospect if the judge decides they've not followed the rules), you have no claim against them whatsoever.

 

Your easiest option is to take your employers' assistance if they have offered it - though that just leaves you owing them money, or to make a final offer to repay the arrears to Halifax and see if they accept it. If they do not, you go along to the possession hearing and make the offer to the judge, who will likely accept it if it will clear the arrears in a reasonable period of time (reasonable being the whole length of the remaining term of the mortgage if you need that long in relation to your finances - do an I&E). But, with 12k arrears, expect there to be a suspended possession order too.